Problems with home network

Fisrt of all thanks for taking the time to help me with this problem. Im new to networking and such so forgive me if i dont give enough information, i'll try to be as clear as i can.

Right now i have two computers hooked up to a Ethernet 10/100 Hub. I also have a cable modem hooked up to it as well, which both computers share the internet from. Neither computer is directly connected to the other (i.e. no file/printer sharing).

A few days ago the main computer (which the cable modem was orginally connected to before i setup the HUB) started having problems connecting to the internet. I check the network connections for the card (Realtek RTL8139 Famliy PCI Fast Ethernet NIC) and saw under packet activity that the card was sending, but not recieving (i assume that means any information that goes through the network). The other computer had no problems (The card on the second computer is a Linksys NC100 Fast Ethernet Adapter).

I called the company (Charter Communications) and was told that they recently changed the package they offer which may have caused the problem. The guy had me disconnect the cable modem for about a minute, and then reconnect it. Once done the computer connected fine but now the same problem is happening to the second computer.

The problem is i still dont know what is the cause of the problem. When i hooked up the two computers to the hub all i had to do was plug in the cables for the two computers and the cable modem, and it worked fine. So does anyone have any ideas. Did i not give enough info? Any help would be appreciated.

ShEDeViL

Graduate

Posts: 216

3+ Months Ago

Sounds like you were getting two IPs before from the ISP, but now they are only giving you one. Which is why only one of your computers gets internet (the one who grabs the ip first). You are either going to have to call them and request a second IP, get a router, or get a second ethernet card for one of your computers and use it as a router. Getting the second IP will cost something like $5/month, a router will cost about $60, and the second ethernet card will cost about $20. With the second IP, both comptuters will have their own bandwidth, with the router they will share bandwidth (about 50/50), and with the second ethernet card, the main computer will get the bulk of the bandwidth since it will be the one actually connecting to the outside world.

If you have the money, I suggest getting a second IP from your ISP.

pakhunter

Born

Posts: 3

3+ Months Ago

Ok so just to be sure i have this right. For both computers to be able to use the internet at the same time, they would both have to have the same IP address, since there is only one now. And since that isnt possible i'd have to get a second one?

I went to the website for charter to try and find out how much a second IP address would cost. It says there that they dont support home networks and only support one computer per cable modem. I assume that means i cant get a second address.

By the way can you tell me the difference between a router and a hub. I want to be sure im desribing the right thing. What i have is a Linksys Etherfast 10/100 5-port workgroup switch. Its got four jacks in the back for hooking up network cables to computers and an uplink jack where i have the modem hooked up. I did have to purchase it and a card for the second computer when i first hooked everything up, so will i have to do it again?

ShEDeViL

Graduate

Posts: 216

3+ Months Ago

Ok, you have a switch, which is actually better than a hub from a networking point of view. But it still doesn't do what you are looking for. The main difference between a switch and a router is a router takes the ip from your ISP and assigns it to itself and then issues the computers connected to it ips of the 192.168.0.xxx nature. Thus allowing multiple computers to share one external ip address (the one that the router is using). The switch just takes how ever many ip's it gets from your ISP and distributes them to the computers connected to it, on a first come first serve basis.

The only reason to have a switch is if you are getting multiple ip's from one source, but the source only has one "output" ethernet jack, so you need multiple ethernet jacks to hook your computers into.

If I confused you more than I helped, you might want to check out this link and scroll down to the bottom to view what responses were given. I know exactly what it is, but for some reason I just can't explain it right now.

pakhunter

Born

Posts: 3

3+ Months Ago

Actually i think you helped this whole thing make a lot more sense. It would explain why only one computer was able to connect to the internet at any given time.
One thing i did try was unhooking the primary computer from the switch so that only the second computer and the modem were connected, but still it didn't make a difference.
It seems to me that i may be out of luck in this situation. perhaps i should look into getting a different provider.

Thanks for your help though, it was much appreciated

ShEDeViL

Graduate

Posts: 216

3+ Months Ago

That's because the cable modem is storing your mac address. You can switch it so that the other computer can use the internet, by resetting the cable modem and having the first computer unplugged from the switch.

snail

Graduate

Posts: 109

3+ Months Ago

This helps me to better understand my situation too.Lightning struck and a TV went dead. I notice that the wireless router was no longer "working" -- the computers that used the wireless connection were no longer able to access the Internet.I connected a USB from the modem into one of these computers.There was no connection still. I then unplugged the ethernet cable which linked the modem to the router. This time it worked. There was a successful connection.I am wondering if the lightning caused a surge/jolt to short out the ethernet connection alone on either the modem and/or the wireless "in" connection.When I connected directly the formerly "wireless" computer directly to the modem via ethernet there was no connection to the Internet.I do not know how to set up a system/method of sharing the Internet by (Modem via USB to Computer A, Computer A via ethernet to Computer B to share the connectionOR(Modem via USB to Computer A, Computer A via ethernet to wireless router

The latter I suspect will not work...but really don't know.

If the modem truly is damaged I would like to replace it with a new modem. (I have an old modem with a LI-ION battery but, like a few electronics I have, I am missing the stinking power cord.)